The Old World species of Boehmeria (Urticaceae, tribus Boehmerieae) a taxonomic revision Wilmot-Dear, Christine Melanie; Friis, Ib Published in: Blumea DOI: 10.3767/000651913X674116 Publication date: 2013 Document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Document license: CC BY-NC-ND Citation for published version (APA): Wilmot-Dear, C. M., & Friis, I. (2013). The Old World species of Boehmeria (Urticaceae, tribus Boehmerieae): a taxonomic revision. Blumea, 58(2), 85-216. https://doi.org/10.3767/000651913X674116 Download date: 11. Oct. 2021 Blumea 58, 2013: 85–216 www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nhn/blumea RESEARCH ARTICLE http://dx.doi.org/10.3767/000651913X674116 The Old World species of Boehmeria (Urticaceae, tribus Boehmerieae). A taxonomic revision C.M. Wilmot-Dear1, I. Friis2 Key words Abstract This is the second part of a world-wide revision of the genus Boehmeria, the previously-published part having dealt with the New World species. The Old World species are widely distributed in the tropics and subtropics Boehmeria from West Africa to islands in the Pacific Ocean and from Japan and China to Southern Africa, Madagascar and conservation assessment Australia, with the highest species richness in the Himalayas and their extension into China and Indochina. No descriptions indi genous species is common to both the Old and New World. The species represent taxonomic units of very dif- distribution ferent complexity: most species exhibit little infraspecific variation; in several others formal taxonomic infraspecific ecology units can be recognised; however, in two, B. virgata and B. japonica, a highly complex variation is seen, fitting keys with difficulty into the normal hierarchy of taxonomic classification. With the conclusions reached here, 33 species, Old World including 31 varieties, are recognised and over one hundred previously established names are placed in synonymy. taxon richness Four new taxa are described: B. pilosiuscula var. suffruticosa, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla var. minuticymosa, taxonomic revision B. virgata subsp. virgata var. velutina and B. virgata subsp. virgata var. maxima. The following new combinations are Urticaceae made: B. densiflora var. boninensis, B. heterophylla var. blumei, B. japonica var. silvestrii, B. japonica var. tenera, B. sieboldiana var. fuzhouensis, B. ternifolia var. kamley, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla var. canescens, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla var. densiglomerata, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla var. longissima, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla var. macrostachya, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla var. molliuscula, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla var. rotundifolia, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla var. scabrella, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla var. strigosa, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla var. sumatrana, B. virgata subsp. macrophylla var. tomentosa and B. virgata subsp. virgata var. austroqueenslandica. Published on 27 September 2013 INTRODUCTION analysing the anatomy of the fruiting perianth and the achene wall (Wilmot-Dear et al. 2009). New species of Boehmeria Friis (1993: 623–624) concluded that the two genera Boeh­ also appeared in Wilmot-Dear et al. (2010) and new species meria and Pouzolzia were in great need of revision and that the of Pouzolzia and new extensions of distributions of New World delimitation between them had to be clarified. In many herbaria Boehmeria in Wilmot-Dear & Friis (2011). large quantities of material of these two genera remained un- The present paper completes our world-wide revision of Boeh­ identified, the incorporated material was often misidentified and meria and Pouzolzia. It considers all published names and is the nomenclature used was confusing. A revision of the New based on an examination of the extensive herbarium collections World species of Boehmeria and Pouzolzia (Wilmot-Dear & Friis of 38 major herbaria. 1996) recognised 14 species of Boehmeria and 14 species of Pouzolzia, of which a considerable number of new taxa were described and named and a large number of new synonyms and Materials AND METHODS transfers between genera were established. Subsequently, a The methods have been those of classical herbarium taxonomy, number of shorter papers were published which established the with special attention to small morphological details, as in taxonomic importance of anatomical characters in the fruiting previous parts of the project, particularly in the large revisions perianth and the fruit wall in a range of species of Boehmeria by Wilmot-Dear & Friis (1996, 2006). Frequently, we have not and Pouzolzia (Kravtsova et al. 2000, 2003). A supplement chosen a lectotype from amongst a group of syntypes because to Boehmeria in the New World with additional discussion of where it was not necessary for taxonomic reasons we consid- the distinction between Boehmeria and Pouzolzia was pub- ered it desirable to retain useful information concerning material lished by Wilmot-Dear et al. (2003). Then followed a revision seen by the original author. Lectotypes have been selected only of Pouzolzia in the Old World (Wilmot-Dear & Friis 2006), in in cases where not to do so would cause confusion or loss of which 24 species and 13 infraspecific taxa were recognised, taxonomic precision, for example, where collections represent- 5 new taxa and names were proposed and Boehmeria australis ing several taxa have been included among the syntypes, where Endl. was transferred to Pouzolzia. The distinction between there is rather wide morphological variation between syntypes/ Boehmeria and Pouzolzia was further elucidated in connection isotypes or where there is doubt which material was seen by the with a transfer of a species of Boehmeria, B. rugulosa Wedd., author. As previously, it has been necessary to consult material to Pouzolzia, as P. rugulosa (Wedd.) Acharya & Kravtsova, from a large number of herbaria in order to be reasonably sure that the entire range of variation was seen and that rare taxa 1 The Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England, were reasonably covered. Unidentified material, especial from UK; corresponding author e-mail: [email protected]. 2 The Herbarium, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Sølvgade 83, Opgang G, K and L, has been looked through for specimens not previ- S, DK-1307 Copenhagen K, Denmark; e-mail: [email protected]. ously identified as Boehmeria, and in K and L we have looked © 2013 Naturalis Biodiversity Center You are free to share - to copy, distribute and transmit the work, under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non-commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No derivative works: You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work, which can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/legalcode. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author’s moral rights. 86 Blumea – Volume 58 / 2, 2013 through the other genera in the tribe Boehmerieae to extract after the early-caducous stigma has fallen. Cypholophus differs misidentified material. Herbaria from which we have borrowed mainly in the minute tightly curled stigma and fleshy fruiting or studied material: A, AAU, ABD, B, BISH, BKF, BM, BO, BR, perianth. The morphological relationships between these three C, CAL, E, F, G, HK, IBSC, K, L, LE, M, MO, MSC, NAS, NEB, genera are dealt with in key form in Friis (1993: 618-619) and P, PE, PNH, S, TAI, TCD, TI, U, UC, UPS, US, W, WU, Z. A discussed in more detail in Wilmot-Dear (2009). total of about 10 000 specimens, representing c. 4 000 collec- tions have been seen for this revision. We have listed circa THE HISTORY OF DISCOVERY OF THE 3 000 collections, leaving out some material of common and GENUS BOeh­meria IN THE OLD WORLD widespread taxa. Specimens without collection numbers or other unique data and therefore of which duplicates are unlikely The earliest established taxa dealt with in this revision are Lin- to be identifiable with certainty have also been omitted from naean and were placed in the genus Urtica (Urtica nivea L., our listing in this paper. The collecting localities of a selection Urtica japonica L.f.). Subsequent early taxa were also placed in of the specimens which could be reasonably georeferenced Urtica, e.g. by Blume (1825), but already Thunberg (1794a, b) were plotted in ArcView, v. 3.3. The map showing species and began transferring taxa to the genus Boehmeria, which had taxon richness was produced from the same dataset with the been established by Jaquin (1760). The genus was named after use of the ‘Analysis/Point to Grid’ function in Diva-GIS, v. 7.5. Georg Rudolph Böhmer (1723–1803), German botanist and phy- The parameters defined by IUCN (2001) ‘extent of occurrence’ sician at the University of Wittenberg. (EOO) and ‘area of occupancy’ (AOO) have been calculated Monographic treatments of Boehmeria have been produced by using ArcView and the CATS extension developed at the Royal Weddell (1856, 1869), who based his taxonomic conclusions Botanic Gardens, Kew (Moat 2007). on the collections held at K, P and G and G-DC, while Blume When referring to a geographical distribution, the following ter- (1857), basing his work mainly on the collections at L, published minology is used. For New Guinea, any reference to ‘New Gui- a considerable number of new Old World taxa in the genus. In nea’ or ‘the island of New Guinea’ includes both regions, Indo- the last revision by Weddell (1869) a total of 47 species and nesian Papua and Papua New Guinea. ‘China’ without further 48 varieties were recognised. detail refers only to mainland China and where a distribution In the 19th century, when the largest number of Boehmeria- includes the islands of Taiwan and/or Hong Kong this detail species was described, a certain number of different taxa were is added.